


Somethings Things are Meant to Be

by gossamer_gaze



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alcohol, First Kiss, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mentions of Elvis Presley Songs, Slow Dancing, Songfic, Thunderstorms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 13:41:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22917373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gossamer_gaze/pseuds/gossamer_gaze
Summary: Auston's made it the whole summer without letting his secret out. Can he make it a few more days?
Relationships: Mitch Marner/Auston Matthews
Comments: 7
Kudos: 50





	Somethings Things are Meant to Be

**Author's Note:**

> ATTN: If you are any of these characters named or know of them personally, please click away. That would be greatly appreciated. Also, I do not own these characters or their names or anything related to them. This is just a work of fiction.
> 
> Hi guys! This is the first fic I've ever written. I was really inspired by Elvis' "Can't Help Falling in Love" I recommend listening to it while reading. So yeah, enjoy! I don't really have any set time frame besides like a random summer so if there's any inconsistencies with real life, I'm really sorry. Also, I just kinda read over it a few times so sorry again for any grammatical errors or weird phrasing. Any and all feedback is appreciated. Thanks for reading :D more notes at the end

Rain splattered against the tall windows of the apartment as they fell through the door, giggling. Their shoes squelched across the coffee brown floors. The water falling from their soaking wet clothes created puddles on the floor. While the rain may have canceled their plans to play soccer in High Park, they still had plenty of chel to play and leftover Thai food to eat. 

“That storm really caught us by surprise, didn’t it Aus?” teased Mitch, his drenching wet sweatshirt smacking his best friend in the face as he put it on the hooks behind Auston’s apartment door.

“It wouldn’t have if  _ someone _ had bothered to check the weather,” Auston grumbled back.

“Well, you’re the one who made the plans.”

Auston thought for a bit before replying. He knew if he responded, they would keep going back and forth, entering a never-ending cycle of blame until Auston would bow out and take responsibility for the infraction, as per usual. That’s just how it worked with Mitch. That was their dynamic. Some people compared them to an old married couple, but he didn’t see it. 

The thought of continuing this argument was too exhausting.

So he decided to drop it. 

“How about we get started on that Thai food?” He asked instead. “I’ve been thinking about it since we put it away last night.”

“You’re really telling me that you haven’t touched any of it since last night?”

“Ok, maybe I had a bit with my eggs this morning but don’t tell coach that.”

Auston watched as Mitch made his way toward the plate cabinet, grabbing Auston’s gray plate and his own blue polka dot plate (which he insisted he bring over from his own apartment). Then, quickly moving toward the cutlery drawer, then toward the fridge. He seemed to operate on autopilot. Maybe Willy was right, maybe they were spending too much time together. This whole routine was getting too domestic for comfort. People were starting to notice and Auston wasn’t too sure he was ready for his “little secret” to get out. He’s known that he’s liked guys for a while, but it’s never really been this intense since he met Mitch. It kind of scared him, in a way. He didn’t wanna mess up what they had because of some silly schoolyard crush that he has on his best friend. He was also pretty much certain Mitch didn’t like him in that way anyway. He thought about trying to limit his time with Mitch just to get his parents, his teammates, or really anyone that knew the both of them off his case.

But, Auston couldn’t kid himself. Mitch was one of the only few people who he could tolerate for an extended period of time. Something about Mitch’s golden retriever personality balanced out his, as some would describe, slightly… chilly one. They just worked together. Auston’s never really had anyone like that before. It was nice. Really nice.

He was violently yanked from his thoughts by Mitch’s voice and the microwave timer beeping wildly.

“How much thinking could you possibly be doing over there with your whole two brain cells?”

“A lot more than your one could ever dream of,” Auston said with a roll of his eyes. This got a good giggle out of Mitch and Auston would be lying to himself if he said that that wasn’t one of his favorite sounds in the world. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ready to get your ass beat, Matthews?” challenged Mitch. Their dirty dishes had long been discarded to the coffee table and they had been talking about nothing for long enough so Mitch was antsy for some NHL. They had gotten very comfortable since coming in from the rain. Auston got his fireplace going to warm up the cold living room. Impractical Jokers was softly playing in the background while both of them were practically stuck folded into the tan, suede sectional under a mountain of fuzzy blankets from Target. They were in their normal sitting position, with Auston in the left corner and Mitch in the right and their legs intertwining in the middle. Because the rain had soaked through both of their clothes, Mitch was in an old pair of Auston’s gray sweatpants and some free Leafs t-shirt he got from a media event that was a size or two too small for Auston, but perfect on Mitch. Auston picked out his comfiest pair of Leafs PJ pants and his large black hoodie. The rain continued to pound on the windows but, now the sky became a dark steel gray, almost black, with some added thunder. No lightning yet, but based on the sky, that was the next step.

“Hold on, let me clear the plates and turn off the lights. I got these new led strip lights I wanna show you. Like the ones on TikTok, ya know?” Auston replied.

“Ok, thanks babe,” said Mitch, with a wink and an air kiss. Auston turned on his heels quickly to avoid showing Mitch the red that was spreading on his cheeks as his heart fluttered a bit. He could’ve sworn he heard Mitch giggle. Mitch had always acted this way with him but, his own reaction to this was relatively new. 

Just as he was putting the plates in the sink, the lightning arrived, washing the apartment in a bright white. Thunder erupted next, seemingly shaking the building from top to bottom. Mitch yelped from the living room and Auston swore he jumped at least two feet into the air, exclaiming a “shit” on his way down. He was glad Mitch didn’t see that. The apartment continued to stay dark after that.

“Hey, Aus…” an iPhone flashlight shown from the other room, “you there bud?”

“Literally where would I have gone, Mitch?”

“I don’t need any of your sass right now. This is an emergency situation.”

Auston rolled his eyes. “I’ll grab some candles from my bathroom. You stay put. Okay?”

“Okay.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Auston continued down his hallway, phone flashlight in hand. He had walked through his apartment in the dark before but, the lightning decorated the walls with weird, angular shadows he had never seen before and frankly, he was freaking out a bit. When he reached his bathroom, he pulled the shower curtain back quickly, just to do the old “murderer in my shower” check. Once he was satisfied with his safety, Auston opened his bathroom closet and stared at the rows and rows of colorful wax. Candles were another one of his dirty little secrets. He considered himself a candle connoisseur. He had them arranged by scent, manufacturer, color, and they were in alphabetized bins. He had busied himself with picking out scents that he would be sure wouldn’t overpower each other when there was a hand on his shoulder, causing Auston to have similar reaction to the previous one from the kitchen, but this time, a Peach Bellini candle from Bath and Body Works went shattering to the floor.

“Oh shit! I am so so so sorry… wait are all these yours?” Mitch was staring at his candle cabinet with a confused look. 

“Guess my secret’s out,” Auston laughed weakly, as he was still coming down from his second heart attack of the evening.

“I promise I’m not making fun of you. It’s just… I think you have more candles than my mom, dude.”

“Yeah, well, my grandma made them for me a lot when I was little so I’ve just grown up really liking candles. But now, I can afford all the fancy ones. My favorites are this one from Bath and Body Works and Sun and Sand from Yankee Candle and… well, you probably don’t wanna hear me ramble about candles for the next half an hour.”

“No, I actually think it's really interesting.” Mitch looked up at him with a sweet, genuine look that made Auston’s heart flutter. “I’m getting to see this new side of “tough guy” Auston Matthews I’ve never seen before, even though he’s literally my best friend.” At the same time, they both bent down to start cleaning up the broken glass, awkwardly bonking heads on the way down, sending them both into a crouching fit of laughter. Auston hadn’t realized how close they had gotten. As they calmed down and Auston began to stand up, Mitch’s eyes glimmered up at Auston’s, illuminated by the phone flashlight on the bathroom counter and the laugh that they just shared. And not to be cliche, but Mitch’s eyes looked like the bluest ocean he had ever seen and he just wanted to dive right in. Auston felt like he had to physically pull himself away from those eyes to respond.

“Well, um… thanks again bud. Literally no one has ever shown any interest in my candles before.”

“No problem dude. Anytime.” Mitch smiled back. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Auston and Mitch made their way back to the living room with armfuls of candles and a lighter. They had spent about 45 minutes just smelling Auston’s candle collection and going into the backstory of how he got each one. Auston had picked most of the scents since he didn’t want to get a headache from the collection that Mitch was bound to pick. He did let him pick one though, Silver Birch from Yankee Candle, mainly because Mitch said it reminded him of Auston with a sort of sweet look on his face, which was too cute for Auston to ignore.

As they were lighting the candles and placing them around the apartment, Auston noted the time on his phone. It was already almost 11. Normally, he would’ve been in bed by now, but due to these unforeseen circumstances and there not being any practice tomorrow, it was okay if he was up a little later than usual, especially if there weren’t any more interruptions to his nighttime routine. 

But, if almost on cue, Mitch said, “Welp, I guess I’m spending the night at your place bud. I mean, if that’s alright with you? I’m not really feeling a drive home in this weather this late.” Auston’s pulse quickened. Usually, this would have been no problem because of his guest bedroom but, as if by some cruel fate, a pipe burst in the ensuite earlier this week so it was out of commission. 

“I can take the couch and you can sleep in my bed if you want,” offered Auston.

“Aus, I’m not kicking you out of your own bed. It’s definitely big enough for the both of us anyway.” This week kept continuing to get worse apparently, between the pipe bursting, his newfound apparent feelings for Mitch, the power going out, and now this. Auston wondered if he’d make it out of this week alive.

“Well, are you tired now?” asked Auston.

“Oh no, not at all. I just wanted to make sure you were okay with me spending the night before it got too late. I had a feeling you’d say yes, but I just wanted to double-check.” Mitch looked over at him with a smirk and for about the third time this evening, Auston’s heart stopped. He’d really gotta get himself together if Mitch is gonna be here all night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What did people even do for fun in the olden times anyway? I can’t even imagine living without a tv or my Xbox,” complained Mitch, as they continued to play catch on the couch with the random tennis ball Auston had found under it. They had been sprawled out on the couch for a while now, just kinda staring at the ceiling and basking in the orange glow of the candles and fireplace. Their phones were starting to get low battery warnings so they couldn’t even use them as a source of entertainment. “What were some fun sleepover-type activities you did with the boys during roadies?”

“We usually just ran around the hotel, jumped in the pool, played on the workout equipment until the hotel staff yelled at us, ya know? Nothing really out of the ordinary.”

“Huh... so you guys never played like truth or dare or like 20 questions or anything like that?” Mitch glanced over at him with a mischievous look in his eyes

“Nah, I wasn’t ever really on that kind of team I guess.” Auston knew exactly where this was going.

“Well, that settles it then. Truth or dare or 20 questions? And do you have any alcohol to make this fun?”

“Since truth or dare may require me to get up at some point, I’m gonna go with 20 questions. There’s some white wine in the back of the fridge if you wanna grab some, pretty please,” Auston replied with his attempt at puppy dog eyes, hoping that they would convince Mitch enough to get up so he didn’t have to leave his toasty blanket fortress.

“Fine, I’ll be right back,” Mitch said with a wink, “Don’t get too comfortable though. We’re about to do some true soul searching.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wait, so you’re telling me you’ve never taken physics? Like seriously? That was one of the hardest classes ever. I scraped by in that class. How’d they even let you graduate high school without it?” Auston asked, with raised eyebrows while passing the bottle of wine back to Mitch. Even for being such a big guy, he was already starting to feel warm from the wine.

“I’m not sure. Canada’s just weird like that I guess. The hardest class I probably ever took though was probably… anatomy. There’s just too much shit in the human body dude. Too much to memorize. I just couldn’t get it.” Mitch finished his sentence with another long sip from the bottle. He was quiet for a minute. The cogs in his head were obviously turning. “Okay, now that we’ve gone through five warm-up questions, it's time to get to the real juicy stuff. I’ll go first. Continuing with the high school theme, what’s your favorite memory from high school? Did you get up to any crazy antics? Hook up with any hotties under the bleachers?”

“Hey! That’s more than one question!”

Mitch rolled his eyes. “But they all mean the same thing, so spill.”

Auston paused for a few moments, trying to come up with something besides hockey. But, he couldn’t. “To be honest, I didn’t really have too many, besides like hockey memories. It kinda took up most of my time. I didn’t even go to prom because I had a really important game the next morning. In some ways, I feel bad about it sometimes because I didn’t really get the “typical” high school experience with homecomings and house parties and football games, but then I remember I play in the NHL and it feels a bit better.”

Mitch looked at him with a sort of heartbroken look. “Wait so like, you never got to experience prom? No tuxes? No limos? No school gym decorated with cheap streamers?” He paused, hesitant, “No slow dances?”

“Nope. I’ve literally never danced with another person in like… that way.”

The feeling of the room had shifted into something Auston didn’t recognize. But it felt like the electricity from the storm outside had made its way into the apartment and caused every sense was magnified times 1000. The alcohol wasn’t helping either. The quiet tapping of the rain on the window sounded more like golf ball sized hail. The dying heat from the fireplace was more like a raging forest fire. The now lukewarm-ish wine bottle in his hand felt like a block of ice. 

“I could… show you?” Mitch had preoccupied himself with a loose thread on his blanket, not so secretly trying to avoid eye contact. “If you want? Just a fair warning though, I’m not a great dancer. My date sent me a dry cleaning bill for the new shoes that I ruined after stepping on her toes,” Mitch laughed weakly, as if trying to give some of the air back that had been sucked out of the room a moment before.

“Uh… yeah sure. I’d like that.” Mitch finally met Austin’s eyes again, his face stretching into a surprised, but absolutely warm smile.

With that, they peeled themselves off the couch and awkwardly stood there. Neither of them wanted to show that they wanted the other to make the first move. While Auston never imagined his first dance like this, it was oddly fitting for them, in their baggy sweats in the middle of Auston’s living room.

“Let me get some music going I guess. I’ll just use the song from my prom,” Mitch quietly said, finally breaking the silence. His phone automatically connected to the Bluetooth speakers in the living room, as it had done many times before.

_ Wise men say only fools rush in… _

“Ok, so I’ve never been the “girl” while dancing so bear with me but…” Mitch said, barely above a whisper as he gently grabbed Auston’s large hands and placed around his waist then behind his back while putting his own behind Auston’s neck. It might have only been from the alcohol, but Auston’s body felt like it was on fire every time Mitch touched him. He then pulled himself towards Auston so that they were chest to chest. “There. We should be good. Now just start swaying back and forth. Real slow, try to stay on beat.”

_ Shall I stay? Would it be a sin? _

Auston’s head was complete radio static. He felt like he was staring down at Mitch tucked into his chest with eyes as wide as dinner plates. It probably wasn’t a really pleasing sight from Mitch’s angle. But, he could not believe this was actually happening. This kind of stuff only seemed to happen to the pretty people in cheesy rom-coms or romance novels. But, there he was, in his candlelit living room, slow dancing to probably one of the most romantic songs of all time with his best friend/secret crush in his arms. And he thought playing in the NHL was his only dream come true. He was surprised Mitch hadn’t asked him if his heart was okay because Mitch’s head was directly over the spot where it felt like his heart was gonna burst out of his chest.

_ Like a river flows, surely to the sea... _

“Hey Aus?” Mitch rested his chin on his chest and looked up at him with an unsure look, almost like he was scared. Those same blue eyes from the bathroom gleamed up at Auston, even more intensified by the orangey glow of the scattered candles. Auston never wanted to look away for the rest of his life. He felt like if he looked away, it would actually kill him.

“Yeah…” Auston answered hoarsely.

Auston guessed that was all the answer Mitch needed to whatever question he was gonna ask because before he could ask what was wrong, Mitch’s lips were on his. The kiss was light at first, a test of boundaries. But, as soon as Auston kissed back, it heated up, becoming desperate and deep, like a dam had finally broken between them. Mitch’s mouth was more intoxicating than the white wine it tasted like. 

When they finally broke apart, Mitch looked up at him, his chin again on Auston’s chest, with a stupid, adoring grin on his face. “Finally, I’ve been waiting for that since the first day of training camp.”

“Wait, you’ve wanted to do this for that long?” Auston’s eyes widened.

Mitch’s face shifted into a look of worry, “Yeah. Fuck, sorry, was that too much?”

“Oh no, you’re fine. I just feel like if we had done this earlier, my summer would have been a lot less confusing.”

Mitch’s grin went right back to his face. “Oh, good…. wanna keep doing it?”

“Uh yeah, it was pretty sick the first time bro.” Auston immediately made a face trying to apologize for how awkward that was.

Mitch giggled and Auston’s heart soared. “Don’t call me bro just after we made out.”

“Ok, is dude better?” That got a smiley eye roll from Mitch.

Each of them was smiling when they went back into the kiss. Auston could get used to this. The song faded out as they continued to sway in small circles around the living room.

_ Oh, for I can't help falling in love with you... _

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you want a second part or a continuation of some sort. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much I enjoyed writing this.


End file.
